1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an orthodontic device to be used for correcting teeth in the state of irregular articulation.
2. Description of a Prior Art
As orthodontic means, it has been heretofore customary to connect adjacent teeth with a wire so as to ensure the exertion of force on teeth under correction in the direction of correction. A concrete device for embodying this means comprises an arch wire and a fixing member to be fastened to the relevant tooth. The fixing member has formed therein a wire mounting groove. The force of correction is enabled to act on the tooth under correction by fixing the stationary position of the arch wire in the mounting groove.
As means for fixing the aforementioned arch wire in the mounting groove, use of a rock pin (JP-B-55-48814), an insertion groove (JP-B-61-47097), or a binding line (JP-B-02-53053 and JP-B-03-71896) has been proposed.
The conventional mounting structure mentioned above has the arch wire directly fixed unexceptionally to the fixing member fastened to the tooth and has this work of fixing performed, as a matter of course, while the patient under treatment keeps his mouth open. Moreover, since the mounting of the arch wire requires this wire to be fixed so as to produce a proper amount of correcting force, the dentist himself finds it a good deal of work and the patient finds it a labor accompanied by considerable pain. The four prior patent publications disclose inventions which invariably move the arch wire toward and from the mounting groove for attachment and detachment on the tooth in the direction from the horizontal direction relative to the tooth or from the root toward the tip of the tooth. When the orthodontic device is operated particularly on the rear side of a tooth, the attachment or detachment of the wire to the mounting groove inside the narrow oral cavity turns out to be troublesome work.
Though the conventional dental correction resorting to the arch wire utilizes the bend or the twist to be produced in the arch wire for adjusting the direction of the correcting force exerted on the tooth, this method does not necessarily allow the adjustment to be attained with expected delicacy.
A main object of this invention, therefore, is to provide an orthodontic device which permits the work of mounting to be effected on the patient easily and, at the same time, allows the adjustment the correcting force to be finely carried out.